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Wednesday, Jan 29, 2025

Constitutional Court Removes Magistrate Macás Amid Amnesty Law Debate

Constitutional Court Removes Magistrate Macás Amid Amnesty Law Debate

A progressive majority favors the recusal of a conservative member from discussions on the contentious Catalan amnesty legislation.
In a significant development on Wednesday, the Plenary of Spain's Constitutional Court decided to recuse Magistrate José María Macás from deliberations concerning the Supreme Court's challenge to the Amnesty Law linked to the Catalan independence movement.

This decision effectively disqualifies Macás, a member of the Court's conservative wing, from participating in upcoming proceedings about the controversial law, which aims to annul offenses related to the Catalan independence referendum.

The decision comes after the country's State Prosecutor, Álvaro García Ortiz, an appellant in this case, lodged a formal request for Macás's recusal.

Reportedly, a progressive majority within the Plenary, under the leadership of Judge Cándido Conde-Pumpido, adopted the petition to exclude him.

The ruling, penned by the Court's Vice President Inmaculada Montalbán, indicates that Macás's previous involvement in drafting and endorsing the General Council of the Judiciary's (CGPJ) legal report on the Amnesty Law confirmed 'direct or indirect involvement in the subject matter of the legal proceedings.' The document further suggests that, by virtue of his past position as a council member, Macás might have gained significant familiarity with the case's particulars, which could compromise his impartiality.

The Court stipulated that Macás had previously adopted a legal stance on the constitutional proceedings' focus, which justified consideration of the recusal proposition.

It underscored the timely submission of the recusal request, filed within the ten-day window defined by law following the notification of constitutional petition admission to the parties involved.

García Ortiz argued that in Macás's role as a vocal member of the CGPJ, he took part in official actions of this constitutional body, which entailed detailed assessments of the questioned Amnesty Law.

Macás had notably supported two critical reports concerning the law that seeks to overturn the crimes tied to the Catalan independence push.

In contrast, Magistrate Macás contested the recusal motion, asserting that García Ortiz's petition sought to undermine the 'principle of political pluralism' fundamental to the court's composition and the selection procedure of its judges.

Macás warned that this move might transform the court into an instrument for ideological manipulation rather than upholding unbiased jurisprudence, a concern that resonates with principles upheld by the European Court of Human Rights.

The decision has invoked dissent from conservative judges Ricardo Enríquez, Enrique Arnaldo, Concepción Espejel, and César Tolosa, who insisted that the recusal application was untimely and derogatory of the established doctrine used when Espejel was previously precluded from deliberating on a constitutional appeal against José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero's Abortion Law.

This ruling further intensifies the legal and political discourse around the Amnesty Law, spotlighting the differing judicial philosophies within Spain's Constitutional Court.
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